1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to disk drives and disk drive-containing devices having selectively controllable quiet and higher performance seek operating modes of operation. More particularly, the present invention relates to disk drives and disk drive-containing devices that are responsive to a command from a host device, adaptively responsive to a characteristic of received data and/or to other internal or external stimuli to assume either a high performance or a quiet mode of operation. In the high performance mode, seek operations may be carried out at high speed. In the quiet mode or modes of operation, seek operations may be carried out in such a manner as to generate comparatively less audible noise than seek operations carried out when the drive is operating in the high performance mode of operation.
2. Description of the Prior Art and Related Information
Disk drives able to carry out fast seek operations are widely considered to be better performing than drives able to carry out comparatively slower seek operations. Competitive forces, therefore, have conventionally steered the hard disk drive industry to develop drives exhibiting ever faster seek operations. It has been found, however, that high performance drives are acoustically noisier than comparatively less performing drives. In general, drives following faster profiles during seek operations are audibly noisier than drives following less aggressive seek profiles. A balance is usually sought between competitive performance (fast disk accesses) and acceptable levels of acoustical noise. In other words, hard disk drives designed for personal computers, workstations and servers are most often manufactured to operate at the highest sustainable performance level that does not produce objectionable noise levels. An example of this balancing approach may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,475,545 to Hampshire et al. In this document, Hampshire et al. describe methods to impose limits upon the control current applied to the actuator to reduce acoustic noise during seek operations.
The realm of applications in which hard disk drives are deployed, however, is growing. Increasingly, the high storage densities, low cost, modest power requirements and small size of current drives are having a synergistic effect upon the development and popularization of a wide variety of newly emergent digital consumer devices, such as digital cameras and digital video recorders, to name a few. In such devices, it has been found that the acoustic noise inherent in some high performance drives frequently is perceived as a lack of quality and workmanship, if not an outright annoyance. For such new devices to gain widespread acceptance, therefore, it is believed necessary for the drives integrated therein to exhibit significantly reduced noise levels. However, merely integrating conventional drives (wherein performance and acoustics are balanced) may not adequately address the fimdamental differences between computer-based applications and consumer devices and appliances. For example, there may be instances in which high speed seek operations are paramount to the proper functioning of the device. Conversely, there may also be instances in which the same device fuictions optimally following seek profiles defining slower seek operations.
Digital video recorder/players are illustrative of such a class of consumer digital devices that would benefit from a storage device having different modes of operations. Indeed, during playback or acquisition of a video data stream, the video recorder/player may best operate following aggressive seek profiles, thereby generating some (limited) level of acoustic noise. However, during times when the recorder/player is downloading information over a low bandwidth channel or in the middle of the night, it may be desirable, to avoid distracting or annoying the user, to perform comparatively slower seek operations to thereby operate in the quietest mode possible. Alternatively, while a moderate level of audible drive noise may be undetectable when the ambient noise levels are high, such a moderate level of audible drive noise may become objectionable when the ambient acoustic levels lower. Notwithstanding such special purpose applications, it is anticipated that these units will in some instances simultaneously serve as information processors, which at times will be demanding of hard disk performance. If hard disk drives are to be successfully integrated into everyday consumer devices such as digital video recorders and playback machines, cameras, musical instruments, kitchen appliances and the like, their existence and modes of operation must become uniformly unobtrusive, reliable, user-friendly and even adaptive.
An object of this invention, therefore, is to provide hard disk drives that selectively provide either higher-performance seek operations or reduced-audible noise while effecting a seek operation. It is another object of the present invention to provide disk drives that are optimally suited for incorporation into devices targeted for home and consumer uses.
Accordingly, this invention may be regarded as a disk drive that selectively provides either higher-performance seek operations or reduced-audible noise while effecting a seek operation, the disk drive. According to an embodiment thereof, the disk drive according to the present invention includes first means for defining a higher performance seek operating mode and second means for defining a quiet seek operating mode. Servo means control seek operations and include means for defining a plurality of seek profiles including a first seek profile defined to provide relatively short average seek times and a second seek profile defined to provide quieter operation on average in comparison with the first seek profile, and means for effecting a seek subject to the first seek profile in response to the higher performance seek operating mode and for effecting a seek subject to the second seek profile in response to the quiet seek operating mode.
According to further aspects of the present invention, the disk drive may include a host interface, the second means including a first host command received by the host interface. The quiet seek mode may be active for executing the first host command and the disk drive may revert to the higher performance seek mode after the first host command is completed. The disk drive may remain in the quiet seek mode after executing the first host command. The first means may comprise a second host command received by the host interface. The second means may comprise a disk drive control program. The second means may include detection means for detecting a characteristic of the data stream, either the quiet seek operating mode or the higher performance seek operating mode being invoked depending upon the detected characteristic. The second means may comprise detection means for detecting a data stream length, the quiet seek operating mode being invoked whenever the data stream length reaches a threshold length. The second means may comprise user accessible manual switch means for manually switching between the higher performance seek operating mode and the quiet seek operating mode. The second means may comprise means (such as a microphone) for measuring an ambient acoustic level, the measuring means invoking the quiet seek operating mode whenever the ambient acoustic level reaches a selectable threshold. A clock means may be provided, one or both of the first and second means being responsive to a signal from the clock means to selectively switch between the higher performance seek operating mode and the quiet seek operating mode depending upon a time of day.
The second means may define a plurality of mutually different quiet seek operating modes, each of the plurality of quiet seek operating modes causing the drive to operate with mutually different levels of audible noise. A host interface may be provided, and the second means may comprise a first host command received by the host interface, the first host command including an audible noise level parameter designating one of the plurality of quiet seek operating modes. The second means may comprise user accessible manual switch means configured to allow the user to manually cycle between the higher performance seek operating mode and each of the plurality of quiet seek operating modes. The second means may comprise means for measuring an ambient acoustic level and the measuring means may invoke a selected one of the plurality of quiet seek operating modes depending upon the measured ambient acoustic level. The disk drive may remain in the quiet seek mode for a selectable number of commands after executing the first host command. The disk drive media may be formatted into a first disk portion and a second disk portion, the first disk portion being formatted to designate the quiet seek operating mode for seek operations within the first disk portion and the second disk portion being formatted to designate the performance seek operating mode for seek operations within the second disk portion.
The present invention may also be viewed as a video recorder/player, comprising a video decoder for decoding a video stream input to the video recorder and playback device to provide a decoded video stream; an audio codec for decoding an audio data stream input to the video recorder and playback device to provide a decoded audio stream; an audio and video compressor for compressing the decoded video stream and the decoded audio stream and a disk drive coupled to the audio and video compression to store the compressed video stream and the decoded audio stream, the disk drive selectively providing either higher-performance seek operations or reduced-audible noise while effecting a seek operation, the disk drive. Such a disk drive may include first means for defining a higher performance seek operating mode; second means for defining a quiet seek operating mode and servo means for controlling seek operations, the servo means including means for defining a plurality of seek profiles including a first seek profile defined to provide relatively short average seek times and a second seek profile defined to provide quieter operation on average in comparison with the first seek profile, and means for effecting a seek subject to the first seek profile in response to the higher performance seek operating mode and for effecting a seek subject to the second seek profile in response to the quiet seek operating mode. An audio and video decompression means may be coupled to the disk drive and to the codec means, the audio and video decompression means decompressing the stored video and audio stream and sending the decompressed audio stream to the codec means to encode the decompressed audio stream, and a video encoder means may be coupled to the audio and video decompression means, the video encoder means encoding the decompressed video stream according to a selected display format. A modem may be provided, the quiet seek mode being selectively active at least a portion of a time when the modem is downloading or uploading information.
The foregoing and other features of the invention are described in detail below and set forth in the appended claims.